A test instrument can be coupled to a test point in a network and measure signals in the network that are received via a port connected to the test point. The test instrument may connect to the network via multiple test points. The measurements of the signals received through one or more of the test points are correlated to detect a problem in the network and determine a suggested action.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A network signal testing device comprising: at least one port connectable to at least one test point in a network; a measurement circuit to measure a plurality of characteristics of at least one signal received on the at least one port via the at least one test point; a processing circuit to determine a problem and a proposed action for the problem based on correlating the plurality of measured characteristics and tolerance characteristics, wherein: a table of a plurality of subsets of the plurality of measured characteristics and a corresponding problem and proposed action for each subset is stored in storage, and correlating the plurality of measured characteristics and tolerance characteristics is to detect a problem in the network and to determine a proposed action for the problem, the correlating comprising: detecting a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; identifying the problem from the table that is based on the out of tolerance characteristics; and identifying the proposed action from the table that corresponds to the problem; and a user interface including a display, wherein the processing circuit displays the problem and the proposed action on the display.
2. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one test point comprises a plurality of test points, and the measurement circuit is to measure the plurality of characteristics of at least one signal received at each test point, and the plurality of characteristics for the signals received at the plurality of test points are correlated to determine the problem and the proposed action.
3. The network signal testing device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one signal comprises an upstream signal and a downstream signal received through at least one of the plurality of test points.
4. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of characteristics comprises a plurality of power level, adjacent channel power level, system levels, Bit Error Ratio (BER) and Modulation Error Ratio (MER), Digital Quality Index (DQI), ingress under carrier, echoes, in channel response, group delay, digital hum, Automatic Gain Control (AGC) stress, coherent interference, and channel noise.
5. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , wherein measurement circuit measures the plurality of characteristics in a predetermined signal characteristic order for at least one channel.
6. The network signal testing device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one channel comprises a plurality of channels, and the measurement circuit measures the plurality of characteristics for the plurality of channels in a predetermined channel order.
7. The network signal testing device of claim 6 , wherein the processing circuit displays on the display visual feedback of progress of problem detection as the measurement circuit measures the plurality of characteristics for the plurality of channels.
8. The network signal testing device of claim 7 , wherein the visual feedback comprises displaying problems associated with the plurality of characteristics as the plurality of characteristics are measured, and the processing circuit is to receive user input via the user interface to stop the measurements of the plurality of characteristics for the plurality of channels and display results prior to completion of the measurements for the plurality of channels.
9. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , wherein the proposed action comprises guided operations to perform to correct the problem.
10. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit invokes the measurement of the plurality of characteristics of the signal in response to receiving an input via the user interface to test the signal.
11. The network signal testing device of claim 1 , comprising: a communications interface, wherein the processing circuit is to send the plurality of measured characteristics to a remote computer via the communications interface.
12. A method of testing a signal transmitted in a network, the method comprising: measuring a plurality of characteristics of a signal received on at least one port of a test instrument connected to the network through at least one test point; correlating the plurality of measured characteristics and using tolerance characteristics to detect a problem in the network and determine a proposed action for the problem; storing a table of a plurality of subsets of the plurality of measured characteristics and a corresponding problem and proposed action for each subset; and presenting, via a display of the test instrument, the detected problem and the proposed action; wherein correlating the plurality of measured characteristics to detect a problem in the network and determine a proposed action for the problem comprises: detecting a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; identifying the problem from the table that is based on the out of tolerance characteristics; and identifying the proposed action from the table that corresponds to the problem.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the characteristics are measured for signals received at a plurality of test points, and the measuring comprises: receiving a session ID for a session; receiving test point information for each test point; receiving user input to start testing for each test point; and measuring the plurality of characteristics of a signal received through each test point in response to receiving the user input to start testing.
14. The method of claim 12 , comprising: storing a table of a plurality of subsets of the plurality of measured characteristics and a corresponding problem and proposed action for each subset; wherein correlating the plurality of measured characteristics to detect a problem in the network and determine a proposed action for the problem comprises: detecting a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; identifying the problem from the table that is based on the out of tolerance characteristics; and identifying the proposed action from the table that corresponds to the problem.
15. A test instrument connectable to a network, the test instrument comprising: at least one port connectable to test points in the network; a measurement circuit to measure characteristics of signals from the network that are received on the at least one port via the test points; a user interface to receive user input and display information associated with the measured characteristics; and a processing circuit to receive user input to start testing at each of the test points; facilitate the measurement circuit to measure the characteristics of the signals at each test point in response to the user input; determine a problem and a proposed action for the problem based on the measured characteristics and tolerance characteristics, wherein determining the problem and the proposed action comprises: detecting a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; identifying the problem from the table that is based on the out of tolerance characteristics; and identifying the proposed action from the table that corresponds to the problem; and display, on the user interface, the problem and the proposed action; and storage to store a table of a plurality of subsets of the plurality of measured characteristics and a corresponding problem and proposed action for each subset.
16. The test instrument of claim 15 , comprising: a data storage to store information comprising a plurality of subsets of the plurality of measured characteristics and a corresponding problem and proposed action for each subset; wherein to determine a problem and a proposed action, the processing circuit is to: detect a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; identify the problem from the stored information based on the out of tolerance characteristics; and identify the proposed action from the stored information that corresponds to the problem.
17. The test instrument of claim 15 , comprising: a communications interface to connect the test instrument to a remote computer, wherein to determine the problem and the proposed action, the processing circuit is to: detect a plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance; send a request to the remote computer via the communications interface to determine the problem and proposed action, wherein the request identifies the plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance, and the remote computer performs a lookup on a stored table based on the plurality of the measured characteristics that are out of tolerance to identify the problem and proposed action; receive the results of the lookup via the communications interface from the remote computer; and determine the problem and the proposed action from the results.
18. The test instrument of claim 15 , wherein the signals measured at each of the test points comprise upstream and downstream signals.
19. The test instrument of claim 18 , comprising: a pulse generator to output a reflectometry pulse to the at least one port, and the upstream signals include a reflectometry pulse reflected from an impedance back towards the at least one port.
20. The test instrument of claim 19 , wherein the reflectometry pulse comprises a time domain reflectometry pulse or a frequency domain reflectometry pulse.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
August 31, 2015
April 7, 2020
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